Gates Pledges $10 Billion to Fund Vaccines
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates plans to more than double his contribution to the vaccine effort over the next decade, Reuters reports. His foundation will spend $10 billion to support research on and access to immunizations worldwide—with the hope that 90 percent of children in developing nations could be protected against illnesses such as pneumonia and rotavirus diarrhea. Gates, who made the announcement at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the plan could prevent nearly 8 million child deaths over the next 10 years, Reuters reports.
[Read Autism and Vaccines: Is the Case Closed? and A Parents' Guide to Managing Vaccinations.]
Barefoot (or Barefootlike) Running May Guard Against Injury
Those $150 supercushioned running shoes you just bought? They may be predisposing you to lower leg and foot injuries like plantar fasciitis, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed the forces that occur when runners hit the ground heel first (as is common when wearing modern, cushioned shoes), and mid- and fore-foot first (more common among barefoot runners). The heel-strikers came down harder.
"Fore-foot- and mid-foot-strike gaits were probably more common when humans ran barefoot or in minimal shoes and may protect the feet and lower limbs from some of the impact-related injuries now experienced by a high percentage of runners," the authors wrote in a study published in Nature. This study is but the latest voice in the heated debate over barefoot running, U.S. News's Katherine Hobson writes. Some manufacturers have rushed to capitalize on a grass-roots trend that's been around for years, offering stripped-down, barefootlike shoes. Read more.
[Read Should You Toss Your Running Shoes and Just Go Barefoot? and Born to Run: Christopher McDougall Says Humans Evolved to Run Like the Tarahumara.]
Francine Russo on Caring for Your Aging Parents
Anyone with both siblings and aging parents should check out a new book by longtime journalist and author Francine Russo, They're Your Parents, Too! How Siblings Can Survive Their Parents' Aging Without Driving Each Other Crazy (Bantam, 2010), U.S. News's Lindsay Lyon writes. The book sheds light on an underdiscussed, highly emotional life stage that can strain even the strongest of sibling bonds: what she calls the "twilight transition." This is when brothers and sisters who long ago left the family in which they were raised—and in some cases haven't spoken in years—are hurled back together as adults to grapple with their parents' aging, illness, and death. "It's the new life crisis of our original family," Russo writes. And it can get ugly.
How ugly? Russo says she was told by one geriatric care manager of two sisters who disagreed about whether their mom who had dementia could live alone, and clearly she could not. The sister who lived closest said, "Mom is fine," and the daughter who lived far away sued for guardianship of her mother so that she could place her in a facility. Read more.
[Read 9 Mistakes Adult Siblings Make When Parents Are Aging, Sick, and Dying and Why Baby Boomers Should Rethink Retirement.]
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